It All Started With a Turn of the Head?
by tanakahal
Summary: !DISCONTINUED!Something happened that night. Something totally unexpected, shocking, and confusing. No equations could calculate the magnitude of one turn of the head, and the effects it would have on a certain two physicists' hearts. SLASH Leonard/Sheldon pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own the TBBT or any of the characters (I wish I did, though…)**

Leonard was woken up by a loud thump coming from the living room. He looked over at his clock, 2:34 am. _What the hell was that?_ he thought. Was it Sheldon? Was Sheldon okay? Leonard put on his glasses and jumped out of bed.

"Sheldon?" Leonard called from his bedroom doorway.

"What?" he heard his roommate reply from the end of the hallway. Leonard began to walk down the hallway towards the taller man and asked, "what are you doing?" He approached Sheldon from behind quietly.

"I was going to—" Sheldon turned around unexpectedly. What happened next was pure chance, but if you were Sheldon you would see it as factors that added up like this: Leonard had his head tilted up at a little too perfect of an angle. Sheldon had his head tilted slightly down at too perfect of an angle. The two men had been standing a perfect distance apart, not too far away and not so close that they were touching. Both men were tired. Both men were not expecting these factors to add up.

"I was going to—" as Sheldon turned he was stopped in mid-sentence by the shorter physicist's lips. They were unintentionally kissing.

Both men were so tired that they didn't know how to react, so they both froze without pulling away. It wasn't like their lips just brushed against each other, this was a real kiss, weather they wanted to realize it or not. They stood there, confused, shocked, and bewildered. They stepped away and stared at each other.

"Well I can tell you I wasn't going to do that!" Sheldon exclaimed after both men stared at each other for a moment. Leonard didn't reply, he just looked in Sheldon's eyes. He never really noticed them before, they were so…blue. Like an ocean that Leonard could drown in, like the night sky when a full moon brought it to life. Sheldon looked down at the ground and Leonard noticed they looked like they were carved from sapphires. They were like— _Stop it, Leonard!_

He snapped out of…whatever that was, and took a deep breath. "Let's pretend that didn't happen."

"Agreed," Sheldon replied, and hesitated before walked past Leonard and entered his room. "Goodnight," Sheldon called before closing the door. _You mean morning,_ Leonard thought. If Sheldon made the mistake of saying 'night' instead of 'morning' then he must've been as weirded out as Leonard. Leonard walked slowly back to his room and crawled into bed. Why hadn't he noticed Sheldon's eyes until _that particular_ moment? This was going to be a _long_ night.

* * *

Sheldon woke up with a cloud of confusion lingering over his head. Why was he confused, though? _Oh, that's right,_ he remembered the happenings of last night. The kiss, the awkward silence, the whole thing was just awkward. He looked over at his clock, it was a whole hour before he usually got up. He threw the covers off himself and got dressed. He followed his normal routine even though it was an hour earlier. He made a bowl of oatmeal and ate it in silence. While he ate he tried to figure out how to pretend that nothing happened. When he was done he cleaned the dishes and walked across the hall. It was definitely before eleven AM, so he might get punched in the throat, but he decided to risk it anyway.

_Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny?"

_Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny?"

_Knock, knock, knock_

"Penny?"

Penny pulled open the door and looked up at the tall figure that stood in front of her. What did he want this early in the morning? She forced a smile, "Hiya, Sheldon."

"Hello, neighbor. I have a question for you," Sheldon said and held his hands behind his back, he was clear from punches.

"What is it?" she asked and tightened the tie on her robe.

"How are you supposed to pretend that something that happened didn't happen?"

After yawning, Penny said, "What?" She hadn't really been listening, so she was totally lost.

"Something happened and I am supposed to pretend that it did not happen, when in fact, it did happen."

"What happened?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

Sheldon made air quotes as he spoke, "because it 'didn't happen.'"

"Sheldon, you're not making any sense!" Penny complained.

"Yes I am!" he insisted.

"Look, there's no way I can help you without knowing what happened."

Sheldon frowned and considered what she had said. She had a point. "Maybe you should come in," Penny let Sheldon in and pushed the door closed. They sat down on her couch and Penny looked at him with hopeful eyes. Sheldon hesitated.

"C'mon Sheldon! Do you want me to help you or not?"

There was a long pause before Sheldon finally told her. "Leonard and I accidentally…kissed." Penny's mouth fell open.

"WHAT? HOW?" She seemed to be fully awake now.

"When I turned around Leonard was standing right behind me and I was slightly bent over and he was looking up and then our lips collided together," Sheldon was quite distraught on the matter but he tried desperately not to show it.

"Wow…" Penny was shocked.

"And I'm supposed to pretend it didn't happen! How am I supposed to do that?"

"To start, you could've not told anyone," Penny suggested, and Sheldon glared at her. "I don't know, Sheldon! Just don't bring it up, don't mention it when some asks you 'what's up?' Go about you life like you did before it happened." Sheldon considered this for a moment. "Happy now?" Penny asked him.

"Not particularly, but I suppose your answer was somewhat satisfactory." Sheldon stood up. "Thank you, Penny."

"Your welcome, sweetie." She smiled and he got up to leave. "Oh, wait, Sheldon. I'm goin' on a date tonight so I won't be comin' over for Thai food later. And don't worry, I won't tell anyone about what 'didn't happen.'"

"Alright," he replied, left her apartment, and strode across the hall. He walked into his apartment and stopped to look at his whiteboard. He didn't realize how long he had been standing there running equations through his head until his roommate pointed it out to him.

"Are you going to stand there all day, or do you plan on going to work?" Leonard asked as he walked into the room.

"Oh hello, Leonard. I didn't hear you coming," Sheldon commented without his eyes leaving his whiteboard.

"You didn't hear me coming when I made coffee and ate, either," Leonard told him. Sheldon turned around and faced the shorter man, careful not to run into him again. Leonard was fully dressed and held his car keys in his hands.

"How long have I been standing here?" Sheldon asked him.

"Long enough," Leonard replied dismissively. "Are you ready to go?"

Sheldon set down the marker he had been holding, grabbed his bag, and nodded his head. As they walked down the stairs, Leonard spoke of something he found eventful but Sheldon didn't, so he didn't listen. He let his mind wonder, something he usually didn't do. He thought about what 'didn't happen.' _Damn this pretending_, he thought and looked over at Leonard. Could it be bothering him as much as it did Sheldon? Did he know that it was killing him, that he was biting his tongue so he didn't say something stupid?

_Good Lord, Sheldon. Get a grip!_

* * *

Leonard couldn't get it off his mind. It was like a really angry ghost, it was relentlessly pestering him all day. It was like a record stuck on repeat and he couldn't plug his ears or make it stop. But why? It was just one tiny, accidental, kiss. But it was sort of more than that. It was Leonard's first kiss with another guy, and he assumed it was Sheldon's too. Had Sheldon even kissed anyone before that? Usually people remembered their first kiss with someone really well, the way their lips tasted or if it was even a good kiss. But all Leonard remembered was the fact that it happened. He had been so tired, and so terribly unsuspecting that when it happened, his mind went blank. He _did_ remember not knowing what was happening. He remembered standing there without a clue. But when he did realize, for some reason, he hadn't pulled away. He had waited for Sheldon to realize it too, then they pulled away together. Why had he waited?

Sheldon probably forgot about it already. That's how unimportant it was. That didn't make Leonard feel any better, though. Sheldon always forgot about his roommate, or so it seemed. Sheldon didn't even realize that Leonard was in the room earlier that day!

And now, when Leonard was supposed to be working, he was thinking about his roommate instead! Not that his work was really going anywhere, he wasn't doing any original research. It wasn't like he could get behind, he could just copy the results that were written in that other paper.

Speaking of experiments… Schrödinger's cat wasn't applicable to the kiss. _Damn._ You might ask, 'why isn't it applicable?' The answer, to Leonard, was quite simple. The kiss had been completely accidental, so neither person had expected anything. How could you know if the cat was alive when you didn't even know you were looking at a cat? And so, if it had been intentional, the results could be analyzed. Not now, though. Not when Leonard could hardly even remember it!

He glanced up at his clock. _Oh, good. It's lunch time._ He hoped that social interaction might help him get out of this stupid spell. This spell that all started with one little turn of the head.

"So, what's new?" Howard tried to start the conversation as everyone sat down. Sheldon bit his tongue again and thought about what Penny had said. He glanced over to his right where Leonard sat.

"Nothing…" Leonard said a bit squeamishly. Was he thinking of the same thing Sheldon was? Was he thinking about last night? These unanswered questions were driving him crazy. He had spent the entire morning thinking about it. He had copied all his previous work on his university whiteboard down onto six sticky notes and then wiped the board clean. He had locked the door so no one would walk in on him and he wrote new equations. He tried to understand why he couldn't think about anything or anyone else. He couldn't understand it. The beautiful mind of Dr. Sheldon Cooper could not understand this feeling. He didn't even know what it was.

He had no idea that the feeling was love. How could he, though? He had never experienced it before. He was so innocent, uncontaminated by the idea of love. It was all so new.

* * *

"Whuddya wanna do for dinner?" Leonard asked Sheldon as they walked to the car. "Howard's having dinner with Bernadette and Raj can't come over."

"Well, you know very well that it's Thai food night. And since it's just us we don't need to get takeout."

"What about Penny?" They climbed into the car.

"She's…busy." Sheldon decided not to tell Leonard that she had a date. It would just get his roommate in a pissy mood and he didn't want to deal with that.

"Alright… just you 'n me." _This is not what I needed… _Sheldon thought. He most definitely did not want to be alone with Leonard. He was afraid he'd say something stupid.

As they ate, Sheldon seemed to refuse to shut up. Which was interesting to Leonard, usually Sheldon only talked _this much_ when he was nervous. Was he?

Leonard continued eating and pretended to listen to what Sheldon was talking about. It was something about a theory he had. Leonard got distracted by Sheldon's eyes again. They changed hue as they darted around. One second they were bright like a glacier, the next they dark like the color of the TARDIS from Doctor Who.

Leonard suddenly found himself wondering what it would be like to really look into those eyes. Sheldon hardly ever made direct eye contact. It was just something he didn't do. Sometimes this frustrated Leonard. It made him feel like any conversation they had wasn't important enough to the theoretical physicist. _Not important enough…_ Was Leonard not important enough? He drove Sheldon to and from work everyday, he drove him to the comic book store, to paintball and to doctor appointments. He made sure to pick up the low sodium soy sauce and order his food correctly. And, more importantly than all the things he did for Sheldon, he was his best friend. How could he not be important enough? No, Leonard was definitely important enough.

Sheldon stopped speaking and looked right at Leonard. Straight into his eyes. Leonard was frozen in place. Something looked different about his eyes. Was it just that this was one of the few times he had looked directly at them? No, no, no. There really was something different about them.

They were slightly, just _slightly,_ dilated. Dilation indicates attraction…

"Are you alright, Leonard?" he asked, not moving his eyes and inch, and not changing his tone of voice at all.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Are _you_?" he asked in response. He was, of course, referring to his new discovery. Not that the other man had any idea.

"I am fine, as well." Sheldon looked back down at his plate. It was nearly empty. He took a sip of his soda and Leonard tried to eat some more, but he wasn't hungry. Not after noticing a little glimmer of hope in the unromantic Sheldon Cooper.

**A/N I do not know when this ff takes place, it's gonna have Bernadette in it, but not Amy. Also, Penny and Leonard are not together (if you didn't figure that out already)**

**This was originally going to be a oneshot, but now that I'm finished with this chapter, I see that is not going to happen. :P As some of you know, I'm usually a big 'ol Shenny shipper and I normally don't like Leonard, but when I thought about how funny it would be if these two accidentally kissed… well, I couldn't resist. There will be many more chapters to come, I hope you liked it! :) review if you like.**

**P.S. my apologies in advance for the long author's notes. I'm a bit of a rambler…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

As they drove home Sheldon continued rambling, and Leonard pretended to listen. He wanted to ask Sheldon if he had any feelings for him, but he knew he couldn't. If he ever wanted something to work out, he would have to take it slow. You can't push _anything_ with Sheldon. Especially something like this where he's completely inexperienced.

"And I was thinking, maybe if the protons—" At this rate Sheldon was never going to stop. Leonard pulled into his parking spot in their building's parking lot and climbed out of the car. Sheldon did the same and continued to talk as they entered the lobby and started walking up the stairs. He didn't stop when they got to the second floor…third? Nope. Fourth? Still nope. _Sheesh, Sheldon can talk!_

Leonard unlocked their apartment and let the taller man in. Sheldon stopped in the middle of the living room and turned to the shorter physicist. "What do you think? I suppose it could be different if you switched the—" Leonard stared up at Sheldon, _how could I get you to shut up?_ he asked in his mind. Then it hit him. He had a plan. Not a very good one, but it would do.

"But I was thinking about it earlier and—" Leonard reached up on his tip toes and put his hand on the back of Sheldon's neck. His words slowed, but he didn't stop talking completely until Leonard pulled him down into a kiss. Sheldon was caught completely off guard, even though Leonard gave him a pretty big warning. Surprisingly though, Sheldon didn't pull away immediately, _must be a routine panic_ _attack, _Leonard thought. After a second, he noticed that Sheldon seemed to relax a little bit. That could be promising… Leonard felt Sheldon lay his hand lightly on Leonard's back. His touch was electrifying, it made Leonard lean closer into the taller man.

Leonard knew he shouldn't have kissed Sheldon, but he wanted Sheldon to shut up more than anything. And now Leonard was…enjoying it. This kiss was so much more different then the other one, this one was _intentional _and _passionate. _This was a real kiss. And even with as little experience as he had, Sheldon was a pretty good kisser.

Sheldon finally pulled away and stared at the shorter man, dumbfounded. He was probably dumbfounded with himself more than he was with Leonard. Both men had thought it was impossible for the theoretical physicist to ever do anything like that. Sheldon Cooper plus kissing just didn't add up. Leonard didn't care, though.

"I knew that would shut you up…" Leonard finally said after a long pause. "Goodnight." He walked past the speechless Sheldon and went to his room. _Schrödinger's cat, _he thought, _the cat's alive._

* * *

Sheldon lay in his bed, thinking about what had happened. It had been an hour and a half since Leonard went to his room, but Sheldon couldn't sleep.  
_What the…_ that's what Sheldon was thinking when Leonard kissed him. He, again, didn't know how to react. He didn't know what came over him, but he had put his hand on Leonard's back. Why had he done that? Had he wanted Leonard to kiss him? Had he wanted to pull Leonard in closer? And then when he pulled away, Sheldon had just stood there like an idiot.  
He thought about how some people described kisses. The 'sparks flying'. Did any sparks fly with his and Leonard's kiss? He wasn't sure. They must've 'cause there's no way he would have reacted the way he did if there weren't any sparks. _Goddamn those sparks.  
_Sheldon kept asking himself questions he couldn't answer. He wasn't sure how to find the answers. He wasn't really sure about anything at this point, and it was driving him insane. He frowned. He needed to know something for certain.

* * *

"Well, Sheldon, what's the problem?"

"I don't know, Penny! That's just it! _I don't know!_"

"Maybe you're in love."

"But I don't know anything about love!"

Penny laughed at his response. "Sheldon, Sheldon, Sheldon…" she shook her head. "You're a piece a work, you know that?"

"I've been told," he frowned.

"Look, I'm not really sure what to tell you. Just go through your day normally today and report back to me later, okay?"

"Report back? Report about what?" Sheldon questioned her. She rolled her eyes.

"You will report to me about, uhhmm, lets see… You will tell me how you felt all day, what you thought about, what you did, what you said, and all that stuff!" she told him. She realized she might have just signed up to be Sheldon's psychiatrist. _Great, _she thought sarcastically. But, hey! Maybe she could help him. She knew the classic signs of love, and she could give him advise. This could actually get fun!

"Fine," Sheldon agreed. She was a little surprised he didn't protest. "I'm sick of not knowing. I need answers…" Oh, he wasn't used to being the dumb one. Now it made sense to the young blonde woman. She felt a smile come across her face. Sheldon needed _her_ help!

* * *

"I'm sorry about last night," Leonard told Sheldon as they drove to the university. "I shouldn't have done that."

"It's okay," Sheldon heard himself say. _What? Good Lord, that's not what I was going to say!_ The truth was, he didn't really think it was okay. Sheldon had never liked anyone touching him, and the fact that Sheldon had let his roommate kiss him… it wasn't okay. Or was it that the way Sheldon reacted wasn't okay? _Too many questions!_

Sheldon had never been this frustrated and scared by questions. There was always supposed to be some logic to answer them, but not now! Sheldon couldn't find any logic in this, and he couldn't handle it. He wanted someone to tell him it was just chemical reactions, he wanted someone to bring science back into this!

"Let's play the table of element's game," he told Leonard.

"Okay." Sheldon was relieved by Leonard's response, science was coming back!

* * *

"Dude, are you okay?" Raj asked Sheldon and took a bite of his salad. Sheldon looked up from his tray of cafeteria food. He had been staring at for a wile, just thinking.

"I am…fine." Lie. Total, utter, complete, white lie. He was surprised he could do it. Usually he couldn't.

"Alright…" Raj was skeptical, but Sheldon ignored him. He didn't really want to talk to anyone, his morning hadn't gone to well. He had spiraled back into asking himself questions he didn't know the answers to. He was incredibly unhappy about it, too. Just then, Leslie Winkle walked up their table. _Oh, god. Why her, why now? Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse…_"Hey, guys. Hey, Dumbass," she snorted. Sheldon tried to ignore her. Maybe if he closed his eyes she would go away… "Dumbass?" she tried to get his attention.

"_What?_" he glared at her. He did _not_ want to deal with her. Not now, not ever. She looked slightly impressed by his anger. She unscrewed the cap off her water bottle.

"Is he alright?" she asked Howard and he shrugged. "What's up, Sheldon? Did you get in a fight with your bestie over here?" she motioned towards Leonard mockingly. _That's it._ Sheldon couldn't take it anymore, he picked up his tray of food and stormed over to the trash can. He shoved the food off the tray and threw it up on the counter. He stomped out of the cafeteria without a word, but the rage in every step he took was enough for a million words. Everyone at the table was speechless. Then it hit Leonard.

"I've really screwed up this time," Leonard muttered under his breath and got up to follow Sheldon. The only reason Sheldon would have reacted that dramatically was because he was in emotional turmoil. And Sheldon in emotional turmoil was ten times worse than anyone else. Leonard had no idea Sheldon had been this upset, and it was all his fault. Leonard felt awful. He should have made 100% sure that Sheldon was okay before letting him out of the apartment. When Sheldon didn't understand something, his state of mind just got worse and worse. This was an all too perfect example.

**A/N I hope you liked this chapter! I'm having a pretty good time writing this fic, I hope you are having a good time reading it.**

**One thing, after this rough spot with Sheldon this will probably get really cute. I just wanted to tell all of you that. I don't want people to think this whole fic is just going to be Sheldon freaking out! x)**

**Anyways, review if you want, I love getting them. Thanks for reading! Love y'all! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Leonard finally caught up to Sheldon just as he was opening he office door. "Sheldon, wait!" Leonard grabbed Sheldon's hand to stop him from shutting the door in his face. "Sheldon, I'm sorry! I didn't know you were this upset!" Sheldon turned around to face the shorter man.

"I-I'm not _upset_, I'm just…" he looked down at Leonard's hand, which was still holding his. "Confused." Leonard awkwardly let go and the taller man mentally winced. He hadn't wanted Leonard to let go. _Wait, what?_ Sheldon was getting really confused now. Forget 'really confused,' he was really, really, really, REALLY confused. Sheldon was supposed to hate being touched!

"What can I do?" Leonard asked him and looked straight up into his eyes. Sheldon looked away quickly and fumbled with his office key.

"I don't know, I don't know… I, it's just so, ugh, I _don't know! _I-I just want be alone."

"Alright," Leonard sighed. "I'm sorry, Sheldon. I never should have done that last night." He turned around, but he felt Sheldon's hand grab his arm and turn him around again.

Sheldon suddenly leaned down and kissed Leonard on the lips. He put one hand on Leonard's hip and one on his back and pulled him in closer. Leonard didn't really know what to do, Sheldon just got done telling him that he was confused and wanted to be alone! And now he was kissing him? Now Leonard was the confused one!

Sheldon pulled away almost as quickly as he had pulled Leonard in. Sheldon looked down at his hands, he seemed horrified with himself. "Oh, god, what am I doing?" he muttered and ran into his office, slamming the door behind himself. Leonard was left in the hallway, alone and baffled.

"What the hell was that?" he asked no one in particular.

"I don't know!" Sheldon called from behind the door. Vulcan hearing.

Leonard stood there, trying to pull himself together. He finally turned around and walked down the hallway slowly.

Sheldon was going crazy.

Unfortunately, the crazy was contagious.

Sheldon had just kissed Leonard.

Sheldon gave it to Leonard.

_Damn the craziness._

* * *

Leonard walked up to Sheldon's office door, fully prepared for whatever he might say or do. But he hadn't been prepared to find an envelope with his name on it taped to the door. He took it off the door and opened it. Sheldon's perfect handwriting printed out these words: 'Leonard, I am sorry for what happened earlier today. I do not know what has gotten into me. I have taken the bus home because, to put it in Penny-like terms, I can't keep my hands off of you. I hope that having some time alone will help me determine what is wrong with me. –Sheldon'

Leonard sighed and put the note back in the envelope. He stuck it in his pocket and walked down the hallway. Sheldon took the bus home, he was so freaked out. The crazy must be in full affect.

Just as he was nearing the elevator to go to the ground floor he ran into someone he was ready to kill: Leslie Winkle. Why was he so ready to kill her, though? Was it because she had pushed Sheldon too far? Was it because Sheldon hated her, so he felt like he should hat her too, now? Leonard didn't know the answers to these questions. _Too many questions!_

"Hey, Leonard. What was Dumbass so upset about earlier?"

"Nothing, it's nothing." Lies. Leonard would have kept talking and changed the subject, but he suddenly couldn't talk anymore.

"Where is he anyway? Don't you usually drive him home?" she pushed her glasses up her nose.

"He took the bus," Leonard told her, he had momentarily remembered how to speak. He started walking toward the elevator again. Leslie followed him, she wasn't done questioning him yet.

"I saw there was a note for you on his door. What'd it say?" _I have enough of my own questions, why does she have to interrogate me, too?_ Leonard suddenly understood why Sheldon had stormed out of the cafeteria. Leslie was nosy, but this was none of her business!

"It just said he was taking the bus home. That's it!" the elevator doors opened and Leonard rushed in.

"Whatever, see yah," she said and the elevator doors closed as she walked away.

* * *

Penny sat on the couch with her laptop. She was checking her email when she heard three faint knocks on her door. Three knocks was usually the beginning of Sheldon's infamous knock for her, but she didn't hear her name being called.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" she yelled and set her computer down. Then the knocking came again. She stopped moving and listened as hard as her ears could bare. Ever so faintly, she could hear her name. The knocks came again and she leapt up and ran to her door. She pressed her ear to it and heard him much clearer this time. "Penny," Sheldon's voice softly called.

She opened the door and saw that Sheldon still had his jacket that was beige on his shoulders and white on the bottom on, and he was still carrying his bag of stuff he took to work. Speaking of which, he was home early from work. He hadn't even gone to his apartment yet.

"You're home early," she commented and he looked down at the floor.

"I couldn't stay at the university. I couldn't deal with all the unanswered questions. And I couldn't ride home with Leonard, so I left work early and took the bus. I failed to remember that I don't have a key to get in my apartment."

"Oh, sweetie," she said sympathetically. "You can come in here, I don't have your spare key but you can wait in here until Leonard comes home. Why couldn't you ride home with him, anyway?" she let him in and he set his bag on the floor. He didn't seem very happy this afternoon. He plopped down on the couch and Penny sat down next to him.

"I couldn't ride home with him because it was too awkward and…"

"Yes, Sheldon?" Penny was trying to be encouraging.

"I made things worse. I kissed him."

* * *

"Well, sweetie…" Penny paused and finished writing something in her notebook. She flipped it around and he read what she had written in bubble letters: Sheldon Cooper is in love with Leonard Hofstadter.

Sheldon frowned. "Good Lord, Penny. You thought I hadn't figured that out yet?" They had been talking for a while, but Sheldon had figured that out when he wrote his note to Leonard at the university!

Penny rolled her eyes and looked at the other things she had written down. "It's all I can tell you. You've got all the classic signs. You can't get him off your mind, the butterflies in your stomach, not to mention you kissed him! But then again, he kissed you, too. You know…" Penny paused and a smile came across her face. "You two are actually really compatible." Sheldon raised his eyebrows.

"What?"

"Well, you two know basically everything about each other. You have an understanding for one another and always seem to know when something's wrong. And for the majority of the day, you two are together. And ever since you met, you've enjoyed each other's company, right?"

"Well…" that was a bit of a stretch. 'Enjoyed' isn't the term Sheldon would use to describe their friendship at first.

"Anyway, you get my point, right?" Penny asked him. _Wait, Penny was trying to make a point?_ Sheldon mentally hit his forehead with his palm. He should have been listening to her more closely. Betcha that's the first (and last) time you've heard that!

"Yeah." Lie. His second lie that day. He was on a roll!

* * *

Leonard sat on the couch, aimlessly flipping through the channels on the television. All he could think about was Sheldon. He hadn't seen the man the entire time he had been home. Either Sheldon had locked himself in his room, or he wasn't in the apartment at all. Leonard didn't know.

Leonard had tried to avoid all the questions that entered his mind. But he couldn't stop them. They were invading his every thought, and he was getting sick of it. It would have been different if he could answer them, but he couldn't. Was this the confusion Sheldon was talking about?

Leonard's mind wondered back to what had caused these strange two days. That tiny accidental kiss in the middle of the night. That one swift turn of the head. Why had he kept saying that in his head? One turn of the head, that's how this began. One turn of Dr. Cooper's brilliant head.

Leonard remembered the way they had stared at each other. Sheldon's deep blues eyes, staring straight at him. He could see the awkwardness of Sheldon in his eyes. He could see all 187 IQ points in those eyes. He could see logic and reason. He could see disorder and chaos. He could see laughter and happiness. He could see pain and sorrow.

He saw what Sheldon really was: the perfect combination of fire and ice. And Leonard couldn't get enough of it. He couldn't ever get enough of those blue eyes. _Yup. It's for sure. The crazy was contagious. And I caught it._

__**A/N I will be going out of town for a little while, so it might be a little while before I update again. Just a head's up! :) Thanks for reading, review if you want to make me happy! ;) Luv y'all!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Leonard turned off the TV and sighed. This was the night everyone usually went to The Cheesecake Factory, but he knew that that probably wouldn't be happening tonight. Who knew where Sheldon was tonight?

Leonard picked up his phone and texted Penny to see if Sheldon had gone to The Cheesecake Factory without him. A few moments later she replied, 'idk. im sick, not working 2night." He frowned and walked over to the refrigerator to find something to eat. There wasn't much in there, and he wasn't very hungry, so he scratched that idea. _Maybe Sheldon __is__ in his room…_ he closed the refrigerator door and slowly walked down the hallway to Sheldon's room. He knocked on the door but there was no answer. He opened it slowly and poked his head inside. Nope, no one there. _If Sheldon isn't here, and he's not at The Cheesecake Factory, then where is he? _Leonard walked back to the living room and picked up his phone. There was another message from Penny: 'can u come across the hall 4 a sec?'

* * *

"Who are you texting?" Sheldon questioned.

"Leonard," Penny replied and set her phone down. Sheldon looked worried.

"Why?"

"He wants to know where you are," Penny said just before she took a sip of a soda. She watched Sheldon as he went from worried to super worried. "Don't worry! I said I don't know where you are!" Sheldon glanced down at his watch.

"You work at the Cheesecake Factory tonight," he told her.

"I know that, Sheldon." she rolled her eyes. He didn't think she was _that_ dumb, did he?

"You should have left an hour ago."

"I called in sick."

"But you're not sick."

"My boss doesn't need to know that."

"But Penny I-"

"Look, Sheldon. You asked for my help. So I helped. And helping you ended up taking a while, and you sure don't seem to wanna go back to your apartment and face Leonard. So I called in sick… To help a friend."

"Still, that doesn't mean you should lie," he murmured. Penny threw her hands up in defeat and then grabbed her phone again. She typed out another message to Leonard: 'can u come across the hall 4 a sec?' She was done helping Sheldon. He was just being plain annoying now, and that meant it was time for him to go home.

* * *

Sheldon heard a few knocks on Penny's door and wondered who it could be. "It's open!" Penny called to the person behind the door. Then the door opened. Sheldon's heart stopped. Leonard stood in the doorway.

"Uhhmmm… hi?" Leonard said and stared at the two people that sat on the couch. Sheldon couldn't talk. Why was Leonard here? Who told him to come over here? And why couldn't Sheldon talk? _Oh yeah, _he thought, _the answer to that last question is written on that piece of paper sitting next to me… WAIT!_

Sheldon lunged at the piece of paper that said 'Sheldon loves Leonard' and hoped he could cover it up before his roommate saw it. After he had wadded the piece of paper into a ball so that Leonard couldn't read it, he threw it across the room under Penny's dining table. Leonard looked confused, but Sheldon couldn't tell if he had read the paper or not. There was a long silence and Penny bit her lip nervously.

"Well this is a little awkward…" she finally muttered and turned to Leonard. She made an interesting facial expression that Sheldon didn't understand, but Leonard seemed to.

"Sheldon, sweetie," Penny turned to face him, "I think it's time for you to go home."

Sheldon blinked a couple times and let the words sink in before he nodded his head like a child. He picked up his jacket and bag and walked past Leonard to the apartment. As he unpacked his bag he heard Leonard come in and sit down on the couch silently. Sheldon didn't want to turn around, he wanted to run to his room and pull the covers over his head. This was waaay too awkward for someone like Sheldon to handle.

* * *

"Leonard?" Sheldon said after about five minutes of awkward silence. They were sitting next to each other on the couch and Leonard had been waiting for Sheldon to build up enough courage to say something.

"Yes, Sheldon?" Leonard responded, keeping his gaze at the dark TV screen.

"Did you see what that paper said?" Sheldon hadn't pulled his gaze away from the blank TV either.

"What paper?" Leonard finally turned to Sheldon.

"The one at Penny's," Sheldon didn't turn to face the other man. He seemed too stressed out to even be having a conversation with someone.

"Uhhmm, no. I didn't see it. Why are you asking? What did it say?"

"I was just…wondering if you happened to see it before I…" he stopped talking for a moment and turned to Leonard. "It had irrelevant information written on it. That's all." There was something about Sheldon that didn't seem right, he was making a funny facial expression and he was twitching. _He's trying to lie. Sheldon can't lie. This is what happens, he twitches._

"Don't lie to me, Sheldon. What did it say?" Leonard crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows as he waited for Sheldon's response. Sheldon opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but he didn't. Not one little peep escaped his mouth, he couldn't talk.

"Sheldon? You okay?" Leonard asked. Sheldon closed his mouth and frowned. He opened it again and tried to say something, but still nothing came out. He made the sort of frustrated expression that Raj made when he tried to speak in front of women. _Great, Sheldon has selective mutism too. Now what do I do?_

"It said… it said…" Sheldon finally peeped out. _Oh, phew, no more mutism to deal with. Just Raj._

"What? What did it say? For god's sake, Sheldon! It can't be that big a deal!" Leonard wanted to make sure Sheldon told him before going mute again.

"Yes it can!" _There_ was the old Sheldon. The Sheldon that just had to argue with everything. But Leonard knew a way past that. Years and years of living with Sheldon will teach you a couple of things, like shortcuts in an argument.

"What could be such a big deal that it made you stop talking?" this question would get Sheldon so worked up that he would blurt out what he was avoiding. Leonard felt so clever.

"It said that I love you! That's what's such a big deal!" Sheldon exclaimed and then realised what he said. His eyes got huge and he seemed frozen in place. "I-I-I mean, I er, it said… No! Uhh, it didn't say that, well it did but I," but he had to stop stuttering because Leonard leaned in quickly and pressed his lips against the other man's. Sheldon's eyes automatically fluttered shut. Leonard seemed to be making a habit of shutting Sheldon up in this fashion.

* * *

Sheldon felt Leonard's hand wonder up and down the back of his neck as they kissed. If it had been anyone else, Sheldon would have pulled away immediately. He would have pulled away as soon as the kiss began if it hadn't been Leonard. Speaking of touching, Sheldon's usual hate of touching seemed to dissipate with Leonard. Which was a little odd in general, because Sheldon had never liked _anyone _touching him. He could hardly tolerate it from his own mother! But with Leonard it just seemed so…right.

Which brought up another odd point that he hadn't thought of until now. Sheldon had always considered himself to be asexual. That idea just shattered. Sheldon was most definitely attracted to Leonard. Sheldon Cooper, attracted to someone? Does that even make sense? Is that logical in any way? And does that mean that, because of one person, he would be considered gay? _Stop it, _he told himself, _stop asking questions you can't answer!_

Sheldon discovered that he had lightly laid his hand on Leonard's back absentmindedly; it was almost exactly the same way he had the first time Leonard kissed him to shut him up. The shorter man scooted in closer little by little. He seemed to understand that Sheldon would be needing this to go slow. Leonard knew that if he rushed anything it could lead to a panic attack, and those were definitely not fun.

The slowness gave Sheldon time to adjust to the physical contact that he wasn't used to. Sheldon felt a feeling deep in his stomach as Leonard got closer to him. Penny had called the feeling 'butterflies'. In fact, she had been quite adamant on calling it that. 'Butterflies' of all things. Why butterflies? Why such a silly name? It's not like butterflies would flutter around in your stomach even if they did manage to get in there alive… _Stop it Sheldon!_ he scolded himself for getting so distracted again. He got so wrapped up in scolding himself that he didn't realize how much his arm was starting to hurt. He was now realizing that 'lightly' putting your hand on someone's back is almost the same as holding it up in the air for a while. He relaxed his arm a bit and felt relief run up his arm to his shoulder. Automatically, his mouth opened the slightest bit, like when someone would usually say 'ow'. But Sheldon's mouth was a bit preoccupied. Whoops.

Leonard didn't know that when Sheldon opened his mouth it was an accident. He felt Leonard's tongue dart across his lips and his whole body tensed. Sheldon mentally whacked his head for being so uncareful. Even Sheldon Cooper knew that a hand on his back and a slightly open mouth would encourage Leonard.

This was going so wrong. And it was all because he was so damn inexperienced. If he ever asked himself why people should kiss, he finally had his answer: so they would know what they were doing and they could avoid stupid mistakes like this with people they cared about.

_Stupid mistakes…people you care about…_ suddenly it hit Sheldon like a train at full speed. He was kissing his best friend. And if anything, absolutely _anything_ went wrong, that friendship could go down the drain. And now Sheldon was realizing just how much that friendship meant to him.

Before he had met Leonard, he had gone through countless lists of possible roommates. But Leonard was the only one who passed the test. Leonard was the only true possibility. And Leonard hadn't left when he saw Sheldon's schedules, he hadn't left when Sheldon had given him strikes, he hadn't left when Sheldon got mad at him for touching his food.

Maybe that's why Sheldon _hadn't_ given Leonard a strike last week when he started whistling, maybe that's why Sheldon was actually okay with Leonard touching him, maybe that's why Sheldon had began liking Leonard in a more-than-a-friend way. Because Leonard was the only one who had been crazy enough to put up with Sheldon. Leonard was the only one _could_ put up with Sheldon. Leonard was the only one who had stayed, and Sheldon couldn't screw this up or his best friend might slip away.

**A/N I'm baaaack! Did yah miss me? xP Anywho, I was looking on tumblr and someone made a post that had a bunch of pictures of Leonard and Sheldon and then in the middle it said something like, 'Dear Leonard, forget about Penny and get together with Sheldon, already!' And to that I say amen, because the truth is, they would be amazing together. I've always liked the Shenny idea, but I'll admit it's not practical. Shelnard is, though! Something like this story could totally happen! And I've read some other Shelnard ffs and they seemed pretty realistic too! (When will the writers get a clue?)**

**I wanted to tell you all that I have found a song that fits this story a little too perfectly, it's called 'Accidentally in Love' by Counting Crows. You should check it out. I'm pretty sure there's actually a Shelnard video to that song. (Pretty, awesome, right?)**

**Anyways, thanks for reading, I love getting reviews, but then again who doesn't? ;) Luv y'all! ****OH YEAH, and the super duper cuteness should be coming in the next chapter xD chapter five will be beautiful, you'd better read it when I put it up! (lol)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five (just as a warning, this entire chapter is the kiss… in great detail, I might add) :P**

Leonard had always thought that, somewhere deep inside him, Sheldon could be caring and…human. It was most certainly hidden under layers of impatience and lack of social understanding, and those walls were as stubborn Sheldon. But now Leonard knew he was right: Sheldon indeed had a human side. And that human side was currently kissing him.

Sheldon had opened his mouth a little bit, and at first, Leonard didn't know what to think. Leonard had thought that Sheldon would need this to go slow. In fact, he had been certain that Sheldon would wants to go at a snail's pace. Apparently Leonard was wrong. He hesitated for a moment, unsure of what Sheldon wanted. He decided to dart his tongue across Sheldon's lips, just to see how the other man would react. He had, after all, opened his mouth. Sheldon's whole body tensed. _God, he's confusing sometimes._

After a moment, Sheldon relaxed again. Leonard pulled away for a quick breath, and Sheldon's hand moved down to Leonard's waist. The other one followed. Sheldon was almost clinging to the other man. It was like he thought Leonard might fly away if he let go. Which seemed a little…funny. Sheldon wasn't the kind of person to ever cling. But on the other hand, it was sort of nice. It was nice to feel like Sheldon really wanted Leonard to be there. Usually Leonard felt like he was in the way of Sheldon's routine or something. Now he was realizing that he was actually a part of it.

Suddenly Leonard realized another thing: this was what he had always wanted. Leonard had always wanted Sheldon to pay attention to him. He had always wanted Sheldon to acknowledge that the other man was there. He had always wanted Sheldon to care. And he had always wanted to break down Sheldon's barrier against people. Now he finally had.

Leonard had grown up in the weirdest of circumstances. Circumstances where his every move was overanalyzed; where any emotion was recorded; where he was practically a lab rat. And it had left him somewhat…hurt. It wasn't that he didn't get enough attention, it was that he didn't get enough love. His mother could care less about love. Hell, Leonard had such a lack of love that he had to build a hug machine! But now he had love. He had Sheldon, the one person he was sure no one would ever be with.

No one cared enough to put up with Sheldon. But Leonard had been putting up with Sheldon for years. Many times he had asked himself, "why? Why do you put up with Sheldon Cooper?" Now he finally had his answer: because he loved Sheldon. He had always loved Sheldon as a friend. Even with the crazy roommate agreement, and all those other annoying rules. Leonard had put up with all of it. He had never really known why he put up with it, he just had. And he became accustomed to it. He became accustomed to Sheldon.

The truth was, Leonard didn't know what he would do if he stopped living with Sheldon. No really, what _would_ he do? He'd probably still have Thai food on Monday nights, and go to the Cheesecake Factory on Tuesdays. He'd still play Halo and go to the comic book store on Wednesdays. He'd probably still expect Sheldon to walk into the apartment on Saturday nights carrying a load of laundry. And he knew for a fact that he wouldn't go near Sheldon's spot on the couch, even if Sheldon weren't there. It just wouldn't be right. Nothing would be right without Sheldon there.

* * *

Sheldon was starting to freak himself out. He had scared himself with the possibility of this going terribly wrong. He had scared himself when he hadn't tensed up again when Leonard's tongue darted across his lips again. He scared himself when he mimicked what Leonard had done. He had scared himself when he actually pulled Leonard in closer. He was _so scared._ At this rate, he would be having a heart attack in seconds.

But Sheldon didn't know what other emotion to feel. He was enjoying kissing Leonard, yes. But he was terrified of it at the same time. It was too new, and Sheldon wasn't very good with new things. Most of the time he didn't even give new things a second thought, but now he had to. He wanted to. And, in a way, this wasn't _that_ new. It was Leonard, and he had known Leonard for years. And the kissing wasn't _that_ new, either. The duration of this kiss was new, though. And the tongue was new, too…

Speaking of tongue, Leonard had slid his tongue past Sheldon's teeth and then pulled back encouragingly. Sheldon didn't quite know how to react to that; he was quite clueless in this whole situation. He considered that for a moment. He was completely clueless. What did he usually do when he was clueless? Well, he experimented. _This is an experiment! I can learn from this if it's an experiment, _he thought. Suddenly he felt encouraged. Turning a social convention into something involving science always made him feel encouraged. He might not be experienced in the social world, but he's like a god in the science world. Maybe this wouldn't be too terrible after all.

* * *

Leonard wondered what had gotten into Sheldon, because suddenly he wasn't as tense as before. He leaned in slightly and copied the movement of Leonard's tongue. He wasn't that bad, a little sloppy maybe. But it was alright, especially for Sheldon. He was new to this whole thing, so it was a miracle that he was even willing to try. But he was, after all, an extremely fast learner…

Leonard found himself practically pressed into Sheldon's wiry frame as the kiss intensified. Leonard hadn't even meant to, but he had leaned into Sheldon so far that now Sheldon was _having_ to lean back into Leonard. Now Sheldon's tongue was in his mouth, and Leonard was trying to get his tongue back into the other man's mouth. Hopefully Leonard had gotten it right this time and this was what Sheldon wanted.

It _seemed_ to be what he wanted. One of Sheldon's hands was carefully wandering up Leonard's back and the other was keeping it's claim to his waist. The fabric of Leonard's jacket was starting to wrinkle in Sheldon's hands. It was another example of a new found side of Sheldon. A Sheldon that no one else had ever found before. It was a little odd…it was like Sheldon, but not. Leonard liked this new Sheldon…

This kiss, which had started out slower than the plotline of the old episodes of Doctor Who, was now quickly taking a deadly turn towards dirty. They were pressed up against each other, their tongues were going nonstop, and there didn't seem to be an ending coming soon.

Throughout the entire kiss, Leonard had wondered what Sheldon's limits were. Usually Sheldon despised touching, so why was he so suddenly loving it? Now it didn't even seem like Sheldon had limits! Leonard had one final test for Sheldon. He climbed into the taller physicist's lap and pressed his fingers into Sheldon's short brown hair. This was a very carefully considered moment: Sheldon could quickly become uncomfortable and push Leonard away, or Sheldon might just go with it…but which would it be?

* * *

Sheldon was getting too caught up in the experiment idea. He had gotten so wrapped up in mentally 'taking notes' that he didn't even notice that Leonard was now in his lap. Which also meant that… _He's in my SPOT! _ If Sheldon thought this was going terribly wrong before, he was mistaken. What was happening _now_ was going wrong. _That's it, _he decided, _no more mixing of science and kissing. That's what got me into this. It's either one or the other. _Sheldon hadn't been paying much attention to anything that was happening, actually. He realized that that was pretty dumb, especially seeing as how this was an experiment and he should have been paying close attention. _Stupid, stupid, Sheldon…_

So, now what would he do? He definitely didn't want Leonard to be on top of him like that, but he couldn't just shove him off. That would be a one way ticket to messing up their friendship, so that was a 'no no.' He decided to try to slow the kiss down in any way possible. He pulled his tongue back into his own mouth where it belonged and closed his mouth, careful to do all this slowly in order to not alarm the other man. Finally he untangled his hands from Leonard's back and Leonard pulled himself away from Sheldon slowly. They stared at each other for a moment and Sheldon finally said, "Well…that was interesting."

**A/N I was rereading this chapter, and I was slightly afraid that people might think that this kiss was rushed into, but it's kinda supposed to be like that, I guess. Sheldon needed to get a clue, basically. And Leonard needed to have an 'ah ha' moment like Sheldon. :)**

**If you haven't seen the old episodes of Doctor Who, here's why I said that the kiss was slower than one of their plotlines: one 'episode' (plotline) would take about 6-8 actual episodes to finish. So, if it were slower than that, it must be REALLY slooow...**

**Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter (even if it was just a kiss the whole time…lol) Oh, and I think you should really hook up with that review button tonight… ;) Anywhooo, thanks for reading!**


	6. it's been fun, guys

WOAH BRO!

Over 7,000 views! Thank you all so much!

But...I have something to break to you guys...

I'm discontinuing this story.

I have completely _lost _my ability to write for these characters. I've been writing fanfictions for other fandoms on a new account, and I've been writing some stuff with some of my OCs and... my inner BBT fan just sorta fell apart.

I'm so so so so so sorry.

Thank you all so much again for following and reviewing and encouraging me. I really appreciate it so much and I really love you all but I just _can't write for this anymore._

Thank you for being understanding. If you want to get my username for my other account, just PM me, but it won't have anything for TBBT on it.

~Annika (tanakahal)


End file.
